Give it to Him!

Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
-1 Peter 5:7

Everyone has issues. Everyone has concerns and cares. If you are married, you have concerns about your spouse and marriage. If you are a parent, you are concerned about your children. If you are a student, you are concerned about school, peers, and grades. Again, everyone has concerns. I currently have a running list of things to pray about. Many times, however, I find myself worrying rather than praying. It is easy to go down a rabbit trail of daily concerns: are my kids going to be okay? Have I taught them enough for them to make the right choices? How can I be more financially secure? Am I fulfilling the purpose God has for me? Am I obeying God rather than man? Am I in the right career? These and a myriad of other questions bombard our minds each day. Our role is to choose to take each of these to God. We are to take every care and concern, whether little or large, to the Father. He instructs us to cast them on Him. The Amplified Bible breaks it down even further: casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. God didn't design us to live life in worry and distress. He is ready and willing to carry the heavy burdens that come our way. He didn't say cast them on your spouse. I am sometimes guilty of that as well. I am concerned so I want John to be concerned too. Sometimes, if I am honest, I just want Him to carry the concern for me. But God didn't tell me to cast my cares on my husband. He did not tell me to cast them on my friends. He told me to cast them upon Him. I know that you are facing real issues in your life. I encourage you to take each of them to God in prayer. Take every worry, anxiety, and concern and lay them at His feet. I assure  you that He will receive them. He cares about you. Like the Good, Good Father He is, He will come to your rescue at the appropriate time. He is watching over you. He is waiting for you. Give it to Him.

Wait!

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! 

-Psalms 27:13 - 14

Much of our time is spent waiting -- lines at the bank, at the grocery store, in traffic -- all of it involves waiting. More than that, many of us are waiting for things to change in our lives: finances, careers, aspects of our marriages. Despite the fact that much of our time is spent waiting, many of us still do not enjoy it. We want God to hurry up and make things materialize in our lives. We want our husbands to quickly be the man that God has called him to be. We want our wives to magically turn in to the women God would have her to be. We want it all and we want it now. Yet, we miss that God does something beautiful in the process of waiting. David wrote the passage above when he was running for his very life. Saul was out to kill him, and he was giving it his all. Saul knew that David was his replacement, and he was not pleased. David had been anointed by God to ascend the throne, but he had not yet taken the position. God called him king, but He was running for his life. I know you are thinking how is this describing a beautiful process. I assure you that it is. Even though David was anointed to be king God used everything he went through to train him for the throne. He used his former occupation as a shepherd as a training ground to nurture and care for Israel. He used his service with Saul to teach him how to be a mighty warrior. He used even the times or despair as opportunities for David to continue to draw close to him. There were many years (scholars suggest at least 15) between the time David was anointed as king and the time that He was actually crowned. Yet, when God calls you something that is what you are. It is the process of time and waiting between prophecy and manifestation that matures and prepares you for the fulfillment. Your attitude in the "meantime" plays a huge role in your destiny. Look at what David says, "I would have lost heart". Do you feel him? In your waiting I am sure that there were many times that you felt the same way. I would have lost heart in my career. I would have given up in ministry. I would have left my marriage. I would have fainted, quit, turned back, and threw in the towel...BUT...I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord! David believed God. He had a million reasons to quit, but all he needed was the one to keep going -- he believed God! Do you believe Him? Even when the enemy is chasing you and coming against you do you believe that you are going to see God's goodness? Do you believe that you are going to see it "in the land of the living"? You don't have to wait until you have gone to glory! You can see God's goodness right now. Don't you despise the process of waiting. Don't give up on your marriage! Many of us waited for this spouse. We prayed for them. Certainly, we can't give up on them. Believe that you will see God's goodness in your union. Don't give up on  your dreams! Keep waiting and keep believing. Stand in faith knowing that you will see God's goodness! Wait well, dear friends! Wait well!

Love Like Jesus

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.”

‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Love never fails. That sounds so awesome, doesn't it? Love NEVER fails. It is enduring. What a beautiful description of God's love for us: patient, kind, not arrogant, unwilling to keep record of wrongs. But this chapter isn't really about how God loves us. It is about how we should love others (which is the same way God loves us). I once read that we should put our names in where it says love and see how we measure up. Is Debra long-suffering and kind? Is Debra not puffed up? Does Debra keep no record of wrongs? I'm already seeing where I can come up higher! The truth is that we say we love people, but are we willing to love them like 1 Corinthians 13 describes it? Paul wasn't giving us a list of suggestions. We can't pick which ones we like and discard the others. Covenant Keepers, this certainly should describe how we love our spouses. We are one with them, and our union is reflective of Christ's relationship with the Body of Christ. Are we loving like we should? Look at this passage in the Message Bible. It makes it even clearer:

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:3-7‬ ‭MSG

Take some time this week to reflect on this scripture. I pray that God shows us any areas that need attention in our love walk and that He strengthens us to cooperate fully with Him. Blessings!

Is it Time to Go?

Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”
-1 Samuel 16:1

It's early August, and every year this time initiates a new season for me. As an educator, August is a month of firsts. When I was a classroom teacher it meant new students, new colleagues, and sometimes a new classroom. August is bittersweet, however,  because it signals the end of summer break (which I thoroughly enjoy), but it also signals the beginning of a new school year. It is amazing how one thing can begin and another can end simultaneously. Consider 1 Samuel 16:1. God tells Samuel to stop mourning for Saul and go anoint one of Jesse's sons who we will later find out is David. In one verse, Saul's season ends and David's begins. This wasn't easy for Samuel. He had anointed Saul as king. No doubt Saul's disobedience hurt him deeply. However, God said it was time to move on. He told him to fill his horn and go. That sounds so simple, but sometimes it is really challenging. Leave what you have now. Leave what is familiar. Leave what is comfortable. Go! As hard as it sometimes is, if we look in scripture we see that God gave this advice to so many of our biblical heroes: He told Abram to go -- leave his family and go to the land He would show him; Moses had to go -- back to Egypt to free the children of Israel; Jesus had to go -- to the cross to redeem us back to God; and you will have to go as well. It may be from a long time job, maybe you have to leave a familiar place, maybe you have to simply go to your next level. There will come a time when you will have to go. I assure you that wherever you have to go great things are going to happen. Fill your horn with oil, prepare to release it as God directs, and go! That is what I am going to do! As much as I love summer break it's time is ending. I must move forward. It is definitely hard to say goodbye to it because it has been a good friend. But I am filling my horn with oil and preparing to release it to waiting teachers, students, and all that I am come into contact with. Is God ending a season for  you? If so, GO!

Are you missing the vegetables?

"We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Numbers 11:5-6)

Isn't it amazing how much we all want change until it is actually upon us? In our verse for today, the children of Israel are two years out of Egypt. God has delivered them and done so in a mighty way. He has shown them His faithfulness time and time again. Even in the context of the verse, He is providing for them manna...bread from heaven! Sadly, they are not satisfied. They begin to wish for the fish they ate "freely" in Egypt. Really? Freely? They were slaves in Egypt. They did not do anything freely. We tend to see our past in through a jaded lens. Because they were discontent in their hearts they glorified what really was a horrible situation. Had they forgotten how much they cried out to be released from Egypt? Had they forgotten the hardness of Pharaoh's heart? Had they forgotten his decision to kill their firstborn sons? They just were not accustomed to this new life God had for them. They wanted release from Egypt, but they were definitely not ready to enter Canaan. Are you? God has great things in store for you and your spouse. Don't keep looking back when God has so much in store for you going forward. He desires to lead you step by step into your Canaan, but you can not despise where you are right now. Don't begin to miss the "vegetables and fish" of your past and miss the provision He has for you in your present. What things are you wishing for from Egypt? Are they worth missing out on His promises? 

God, in His permissive will, gave the children of Israel just what they asked for. He gave them meat -- quail. He gave them so much quail that it was piled high on the ground. Some of them even died while eating it. All of that over something as inconsequential as meat. Actually it wasn't about meat. It was about the discontent of their hearts. They didn't value what God had done for them. They didn't value who He had been to them. They no longer had to work and labor for their provision. All they had to do was rely on God to provide which he did every day. It wasn't enough for them. They wanted more than what He had given. Don't long for what was in your place of bondage. Don't miss how things used to be. Don't miss what your money used to look like. Egypt was a place of bondage and fear. It symbolizes the world. You would rather have Canaan -- a promised place of peace and prosperity. Missing vegetables are not worth your future!

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